Emergency lighting testing under AS/NZS 2293.2: the six-monthly discharge test and the logbook

1. Why emergency lighting is on the fire run

AS 1851-2012 covers the routine service of fire protection systems and equipment, from sprinklers and hydrants to detection, extinguishers and passive fire. Emergency escape lighting and exit signs are not in it. The Building Commission NSW says so plainly: some measures, such as emergency exit lighting, fall outside AS 1851 and must be maintained to the fire safety schedule or their original design standard. For lighting, that standard is AS/NZS 2293.2.

The separation changes nothing about who turns up. The fittings sit on the same fire safety schedule, occupancy permit or maintenance record as the fire systems, and the owner needs one set of evidence for the year. So the lighting is tested on the fire run, and its record is read by the same assessor as the AS 1851 logbook.

2. What AS/NZS 2293.2:2019 is

AS/NZS 2293.2:2019, Emergency lighting and exit signs for buildings, Part 2: Routine service and maintenance, is the current edition. Its aim is to keep the installation in a state where it will work for occupants between scheduled service activities. The 2019 edition was rebuilt to follow AS 1851: a table-based layout aligned with the fire standard, baseline data against which ongoing performance is measured, routine service including preventative maintenance, and the same three classifications of critical defect, non-critical defect and non-conformance, each with reporting requirements.

Note that the standard is listed by Standards Australia as pending revision; technicians work to the 2019 text until a successor is published and called up. The companion standard, AS/NZS 2293.1, covers design, installation and commissioning.

3. The six-monthly discharge test

The core of emergency lighting testing is the discharge test. The technician simulates a mains failure, usually at the test switch or the circuit, so every fitting drops to battery. Every emergency luminaire and exit sign must then stay lit for its rated duration. As the standard is applied across the industry, that duration is 90 minutes and the test runs at six-monthly intervals, which is why the job is known as the "emergency lighting 90 minute test".

The test is only worth doing if the result is recorded per fitting. A fitting that goes dark at 40 minutes has a battery at end of life. A fitting that never came on has a lamp, charger or wiring fault. A fitting that stayed lit but is dim should be looked at before the next round. Three different work orders, and a single line reading "level 3 emergency lights tested, pass" records none of them.

4. The yearly inspection

The twelve-monthly service is the comprehensive one. Beyond the discharge test it covers the physical condition of each fitting, the legibility of the exit signs, the mounting, housing and diffuser, and whether the installation still matches the approved design. It is also where the service provider issues a statement of condition for the installation: what is installed, what is operational, what defects remain open and whether the system still complies with its design. It is the lighting equivalent of the AS 1851 yearly condition report.

5. The emergency lighting logbook

The content expected of the emergency lighting logbook is specific. For every fitting it should hold:

• Fitting number, matched to a tag on the fitting and to the drawing.
• Location, precise enough that a different technician can find it.
• Type: maintained or non-maintained, luminaire or exit sign, lamp technology.
• Installation date, and the date of any battery or lamp replacement since.
• Test date and duration for each discharge test, and whether the fitting lasted the rated duration.
• Faults found, graded, and the work done to close them.
• Signature of the competent person who did the test.

The logbook may be electronic or hard copy. If paper, it should be a durable book kept in a designated place on site, available to the council building inspector or fire authority on request. If electronic, the owner still has to produce it on demand. This is the same shape as the AS 1851 logbook, for the same reason: the record proves the batteries were tested, not merely that someone visited.

6. Defects, reporting and retention

The 2019 edition carries the AS 1851 defect classes across to lighting. A critical defect leaves the installation unable to do its job: a whole circuit that fails to come on under test. A non-critical defect is an impairment that does not stop the system working, such as one fitting out in a space served by others. A non-conformance is missing information that does not affect operation but is needed for ongoing service, such as fittings with no identification or install date.

Reporting follows the fire standard's logic. Victorian electrical contractors describe the working practice as critical defects passed to the responsible person within 24 hours, results delivered within a week, and records kept for seven years. Treat those as the industry's reading of the standard and the Victorian regime rather than a clause you can quote, and check retention against your own state. In New South Wales the regulation keeps AS 1851 records for seven years with a hard-copy logbook on site, and lighting records in the same building are sensibly kept to the same rule.

7. Where emergency lighting sits in each state

New South Wales. Emergency lighting and exit signs are listed on the building's fire safety schedule as essential fire safety measures, with a standard of performance against each. The owner issues the Annual Fire Safety Statement, and each measure, lighting included, is assessed by an accredited practitioner (fire safety), the role previously called a competent fire safety practitioner, within the three months before the statement is issued. The statement goes to council and Fire and Rescue NSW and a copy is displayed in the building. Since 13 February 2026 the regulation has required the fire measures in class 1b and 2 to 9 buildings to be serviced to AS 1851-2012; lighting is maintained to its own standard.

Victoria. Emergency lighting and exit signs are essential safety measures. The occupancy permit or maintenance determination says how each must be maintained, and the owner signs the Annual Essential Safety Measures Report within 28 days before the anniversary. The report is not lodged; it stays on the premises with the maintenance records, produced to the municipal building surveyor or the fire brigade on request.

Queensland. Under the Building Fire Safety Regulation 2008 the occupier must have each prescribed fire safety installation maintained by an appropriately qualified person at the intervals in Queensland Development Code MP 6.1. MP 6.1 adopts AS 1851-2012 for the fire systems and calls up AS/NZS 2293.2 for emergency lighting. The occupier's statement goes to the Queensland Fire Department within ten business days, and a critical defect notice must reach the occupier within 24 hours of the maintenance, with rectification within one month.

8. Who does the work

Replacing a fitting, a battery pack or a charger is licensed electrical work in every state, and the Building Commission NSW's AS 1851 guidance notes that licensed trades still apply behind routine service, naming electrical for emergency lighting. Queensland goes further: the QBCC fire protection licence framework's electrical stream includes "inspect and test: emergency lighting" and "certify: emergency lighting" as distinct classes, so a Queensland contractor testing lighting on a fire run needs the right class, and whoever certifies the installation needs the certify class. For a fire business that is a scheduling question: the technician who runs the discharge test may not be the one who can replace the battery.

9. Why per-fitting records matter

Consider a building with 300 fittings. The six-monthly test is 300 results, twice a year, and each fitting has its own battery with its own remaining life. The only record that proves any one of those batteries can hold 90 minutes is the discharge result for that fitting on that date. A building-level "pass" is an assertion; a per-fitting result is evidence.

Per-fitting records also make the work plannable. With install dates on the register, batteries approaching end of life can be replaced in a scheduled round rather than one at a time as they fail.

10. Common failures

• Fittings missed because they were never on the register. Fit-outs add exit signs and luminaires without telling the service provider. If the register is the commissioning drawing, the new fittings are never tested and never logged. The assessor finds them on the walk-through.
• Tests recorded as a batch. "Emergency lights tested, 90 minutes, pass" against a floor. The record cannot show which fitting failed, so it cannot show that any fitting passed.
• No install dates. No way to plan battery replacement, so every failure is a surprise and every replacement a reactive call-out.

11. Six-monthly emergency lighting test checklist

• Confirm the register against the building: every emergency luminaire and exit sign, including anything added since the last visit, with a fitting number and tag.
• Confirm the fittings are fully charged; note any recent outage. Notify the occupier.
• Simulate mains failure at the test switch or circuit and start the clock.
• Walk every fitting at the start, during and at the end of the rated duration. Record each as lit for the full duration, failed early with the time, or did not illuminate.
• Check each exit sign for legibility, cleanliness and direction; check each luminaire's housing, diffuser and mounting.
• Grade every fault as critical defect, non-critical defect or non-conformance.
• Restore mains, confirm the charge indicators return to normal, then record date, duration, results, faults and work done per fitting, and sign.
• Report critical defects to the responsible person before leaving site and confirm in writing. Deliver the full results to the owner or manager.
• Leave the logbook, or the electronic record, available on site, and raise quotes for the failed fittings.

12. How Maintenance Partners helps

In Maintenance Partners, every emergency luminaire and exit sign is an asset on the register with its own tag, location, type and install date, alongside the extinguishers, hydrants and detectors in the same building. On site the technician scans the tag and the field app opens the AS/NZS 2293.2 form for that fitting, offline if the site demands it. Discharge results are recorded per fitting, with duration, photo and signature captured inline. A fitting that fails becomes a graded defect, the defect becomes a quote the owner approves from an emailed link, and the quote becomes a work order for an electrician with the right licence.

Because the lighting lives on the same register as the fire systems, the six-monthly and yearly due dates are computed from the register and the visits consolidate. The compliance engine finds fittings that were missed or never tested, and the owner sees the same record in the client portal. When the AFSS, the AESMR or the occupier's statement comes around, the emergency lighting evidence is already in the same place as everything else, with open defects listed before sign-off.

A note on jurisdiction

This article describes emergency lighting testing and record-keeping under AS/NZS 2293.2 and the Australian annual reporting frameworks in general terms. The intervals, logbook content and retention that apply to a particular building come from its fire safety schedule, occupancy permit or maintenance record, the edition of the standard called up there, and the state regulation. The 2019 edition is listed as pending revision. For sign-off on a specific installation, consult an accredited practitioner (fire safety) or your state's equivalent assessor, and a licensed electrical contractor for the work itself.